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The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Parts V-VII
by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harpercollins (1978-05)
ISBN: 0060139129
EAN: 9780060139124
Dewy Decimal #: 365.450947
Hardcover
SKU: 21737
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: 1ST EDITION. Unabridged. Part I to VII. Harper and Row, 1974. ALL 3 ORIGINAL BOOKS! HARDCOVER W/GILT LETTERING, DUSTCOVER AND PAGES ARE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION, CLEAN AND TIGHT. Ships rapidly. Overseas by air mail.
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Customer Reviews
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Includes Allusions to Russian Despotism, the Warsaw-Uprising-Betrayal, and the Katyn Denial
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-09-22
This monumental work provides a great deal of arcane details about Russian history, Soviet thinking and policies, and the situation inside the Gulags. For this reason, it can be hard to follow to the reader who doesn't have extensive prior knowledge about these matters. Two glossaries in the back of the book are helpful in this regard. Because there are so many topics and issues raised in this combined volume, I will elaborate on only a few of them.
Solzhenitsyn is candid about the chronically-despotic aspects of Russia's past: "In the conventional Cadet (let alone socialist) interpretation, the whole of Russian history is a succession of tyrannies...Whether it was Ivan the Terrible, Alexis the Gentle, heavy-handed Peter, or velvety Catherine, all the Tsars up to the Crimean War knew one thing only--how to CRUSH." (emphasis his)(p. 79).
The eminent Russian writer estimates that there were 15 million inmates in the Gulags in 1941. (p. 28). The practice, common in the west, of dichotomizing Nazi and Communist camps is not shared by Solzhenitsyn, who comments: "Since Herod was no more, only the Vanguard Doctrine [that nationalism would die out] has shown us how to destroy utterly--down to the very babes. Hitler was a mere disciple, but he had all the luck: his murder camps have made him famous, whereas no one had any interest in ours at all." (p. 359).
Solzhenitsyn mentions Gulag Poles only sporadically in this set of volumes. He alludes to the Soviet betrayal of the Warsaw Uprising by noting that it is not much discussed because "...it shows us in an unfavorable light." (p. 45).
After the Katyn massacre of Polish officers and intellectuals, by the Soviets, came to light, the latter attempted to shift the blame to the Nazis. The so-called Burdenko Commission served this purpose, and their "findings" are cited to this day by Soviet-deniers. Solzhenitsyn alludes to the Soviet whitewash, and how one leading member of the Commission encountered a measure of justice, for his fraud, by ending up in the Gulags himself: "This Dr. Kolesnikov was one of the `experts' who had shortly before signed the mendacious findings of the Katyn commission (to the effect that it was not we who had murdered the Polish officers). For this a just Providence had put him in this camp. But why did the powers of this world want him there? So that he would not talk too much." (pp. 60-61).
In this set of volumes, Solzhenitsyn devotes notable attention to the considerable numbers of Ukrainian-separatist OUN-UPA members that found themselves in the Gulags. He treats them sympathetically as a national-liberation movement, not mentioning the fact of their collaboration with the Nazis, participation in the Holocaust, and genocidal extermination of over 100,000 Poles in mixed Polish-Ukrainian areas during the German occupation.
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A Question, Not a Reflection of Solzhenitsyn's Work!
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-08-11
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The ONE STAR RATING is, of course, NOT about Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago!
The one star rating is to note that Amazon has the volumes out of order.
The text on this page refers to GULAG ARCHIPELAGO, VOLUME ONE, AN EXPERIMENT IN LITERARY INVESTIGATION.
The picture on this page, however, shows GULAG ARCHIPELAGO, VOLUME THREE, KATORGA, EXILE, AND STALIN IS NO MORE.
This confusing situation can cause the Amazon.com customer to buy the wrong book. I hope Amazon.com fixes this error. Thank you!
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